Taking Responsibility.

[kingmakereffect]

And a while after that strange, dark floor is accessed, after you've had time to look things over and get some idea of what's happening...well. There won't be any sort of official announcement to tell you to get downstairs, nor will there be a personal invitation for you to do so. Instead, the doors at the end of the corridor (were they there before? You find that you don't remember. It doesn't matter anymore, though-) slide open, as they always do, and the elevator ride to the courtroom is probably the first familiar thing that's happened all day. It's smooth and quick, though it seems to take a bit longer than it usually does. And when the doors open at the end of the line, the courtroom looks different. The dark, weirdly cylindrical room is largely the same in and of itself, but the usual twenty-seven podium circle is gone; instead, there's a smaller setup in the center of the room - ten podiums total, and you'll likely find the way your spots have been distributed to be very familiar indeed. Of further notice is the balcony - there's a structure that wasn't there before in view of the courtroom, situated high above, barred-in by a railing that'd probably be at about waist-height on your average person; there's no one up there just yet, however. There are so few of you now. It seems that today there are no speeches to give; maybe the Kingmaker is absent, maybe he just doesn' have anything to say. Either way, however, the implication in the fact that you're here at all is clear. For one last time, make the guilty take responsibility.

Comments

[kingmakereffect]

Do you really think I'm going to tell you that? Figure it out on your own!

[amygdalae]

...you knew him before.

[There's no other reason why, right?]

[isafraid]

.... That could explain how they turned him into a kill switch.

[Right.....?]

[amygdalae]

If you know a person enough to know how to get to them the right way... yes.

[It's possible... not fully certain, of course, but possible.]

[cherryblooded]

Alright then. Let me give you a theory.

You know each other because you're from the same world. That's why Alphys is important as well - obviously you'd be a little more invested in people from your world than all these strangers.

[kingmakereffect]

Nope. You're wrong.

[cherryblooded]

...Hm, and I thought that had a good chance of being right.

If he's someone you know better than all of the rest of us, though. Then you might have had contact with him between rounds.

[kingmakereffect]

Wrong again!

[captainobnoxious]

[...]

Was Mettaton in the same round as you? He said something kind of funny to me once. Was real sure of it, too.

[kingmakereffect]

What did he say?

[captainobnoxious]

I was going through a tough patch. It was after Misa died.

[Hard for her to talk about though. It's... not her best moment, in a growing list of not-best moments.]

I felt frustrated by everyone still dying no matter what I tried. And... in the end, his response was that you need to walk away from something. To cut your losses and stuff, and if you know everyone's going to die you need to save yourself.

Which isn't really unusual for him, especially knowing what I do now about him. But he said that there's a way to win this game easily, and that I'd seen it.

[A pause.]

Which would be to outvote someone. If I'd just accepted everyone as a lost cause and wanted to survive myself, take him home to Dalsnes, then... I guess we would've killed everyone else, left someone alive to be the third witness, and then outvote them.

Isn't that a way to win? It's just-- I didn't think about it all that much then, but now...

[kingmakereffect]

...Yeah, that's an effective way to win the game.

[goodforsomething]

Sounds like you're speakin' from experience.

[kingmakereffect]

That's because I am.

[cherryblooded]

Is that how you won yours?

It'd make sense, considering how poor of a liar you're turning out to be.

[notjustawriter]

Sounds like there's a reason he didn't like to talk to us much.

[kingmakereffect]

[here's an answer even though you're being rude]

[captainobnoxious]

[She thought so. Mettaton and her could've won together, then, and then he wouldn't have died, and she could take him home, maybe, but--]

I couldn't accept it because I didn't want to damn the rest of them.

Did you and Mettaton work together to win?

[kingmakereffect]

You know I'm not going to answer that. Are you accusing me of that? Because if so, I want to hear it.

[cherryblooded]

You're awfully worked up about this. I thought he was just a player in this game like any of the rest of us.

[Give him a minute to come up with another theory, he's running dry.]

[goodforsomething]

They did talk an awful lot. I saw Mettaton textin' all the time. Maybe they made friends here and he's just embarrassed he got that close to one of his victims.

[cherryblooded]

If he actually sent one of his supposed 'friends' to be a killer on his behalf, I'm going to have to take back my promise to let Sigrun finish him off.

[goodforsomething]

Even if they weren't, I bet he'd have done it anyway. He's pretty awful!

[cherryblooded]

Isn't he just?

[notjustawriter]

...There's something the two of you have in common, isn't there? Mettaton didn't really make it a secret that he killed people for entertainment.